Dee Forbes banging the RTE TV licence drum again 60m uncollected fee *poll not working - pl ignore*

Don’t forget overpaying for contractors, general waste, expensive macaroons, flip flops, and junkets like sending 41 people to cover a football match in Prague,

A drop in the ocean compared the number of middle-management staff they simply don't need.

Also, likes of Prague was a one-off. These staff members are a recurring cost and a much bigger problem.

There needs to be a clearout of staff earning above 100k. Hire a contractor role accountant to do it. I know just the right person ... would show no emotions, and head off to lunch afterwards.

If RTE was a PLC or quoted company, this would be already done.

"If this was a private sector…"

I've worked in both the public and private sector - the above is the greatest myth of all time.

Private sector hierarchy are just as bad for transparancy and would do anything to save their own skins. They'd look for scapegoats and reasons why whatever they are overseeing isn't their fault.

Public sector has it's issues, but lets not pretend its easy for the private sector to just 'get it done' either.

jaysis the reek of desperation off this….anything to keep yourself in the news I guess. 🤷‍♂️

Tomorrow on evoke.ie, “Ryan Tubridy wows fans in Dun Laoghaire as he enjoys beautiful, gorgeous and delicious 99 from Teddy’s.”

Wouldn't he just be another D4bres?

I think if you look back prior to 2023 Tubs gets little mention on this thread, except when RTÉ provided the list of top 10 earners.

It may seem like begrudgery but I feel that too easy a criticisms of people when they mention Tubs, or the other top earners.

To me telling someone they are a begrudger is to excuse excess as it is to suggest jealously of success.

RTÉ talent are not successful enough in my view to warrant begrudgery, but they seem to think they are.

You really think that we’d not have a whisper of anything like the shenanigans in RTÉ if they happened in TV3/Virgin?

There’s been plenty of staff (on air and off air) who have left the organisation and people talk, yet you don’t hear anything like the mess within RTÉ.

If you’re suggesting that TV3/Virgin operate like the mess RTÉ is I’d love to hear your stories.

This is the type of thing that RTÉ would say.

I am no defender of Virgin Media TV/TV3 (who recently got 3.3m from the regulator for news and gets some funding from the Sound and Vision Fund).

But just take their daytime output. Since 1999 Ireland AM has aired Monday to Friday 50 weeks of the year, RTÉ since 1999 has had various daytime TV shows, and they have always taken a break during the summer. More recently Ireland AM is airing 7 days for 50 weeks of the year.

How is it that a company on a fraction of the budget as RTÉ can produce this type of TV everyday of the week for 50 weeks of the year, while RTÉ have consistently struggled to have a long term daytime TV show running for 35 weeks of the year? And has no Morning TV show.

It's News output is the same, I agree not as extensive as RTÉ but it still manages to air its news for 52 weeks of the year, while RTÉ cuts news in August, and is currently in slow down mode in June and July. There is no wherewithal in RTÉ reframe their news output in August instead opting for the annual repeats of RITYs.

Look, I was one of the first to argue against TV3/VMTV's dropping of the news at 6:30 for Xpose, later their dropping of The Tonight Show from Monday and Wednesday nights, the regulator failed to suggest they might reconsider.

I would be happy to turn around and say, well look RTÉ's prime time schedule is more important than Daytime TV, but just look at their output in Prime Time, the shows aren't all that good, while there is nothing outside of sport on RTÉ2 and in the last 3 years nothing much has changed.

I'd even be happy to argue if Today was in someway better than Ireland AM, but there is not much difference between either show, and I think I might even give Ireland AM the edge.

I'd disagree all this stuff about Tubridy is begrudery. His worst offense seems to that he has made a life outside RTE and still has a high profile. His only relevance to RTE today is to show how the media landscape has changed. Remember has a result of the Tubridy scandal and the resulting changes RTE lost talent. For some people the limitations introduced and extra attention on their finances wasn't worth it. In this day and age anyone with serious talent in Ireland doesn't need RTE. YouTube, podcasts, streaming services etc can provide a bigger audience than RTE will ever be able to provide. It's 2026 not 1966.

Even in this thread there is talk about TV3/Virgin or whatever the channel is called. That isn't RTE's main competition. RTE are competing with Netflix Amazon, YouTube, Spotify, the GAA. Dodgey boxes etc. Without a functional player and digital media offering full stop RTE will struggle to survive. It doesn't matter if presenters work for free or Dee Forbes tells her entire life story. It won't help RTE going forward. People who grew up with RTE pass on and for newer generations it becomes a case of RTE who, or existing generations who move house/change TV and don't bother with Saorview. This is best exemplified by the number of people who watched the Champions League final on dodgey boxes, something RTE provided for free.

RTE awful digital offering are the scandal not what Tubridy had for breakfast this morning.

@For Petes Sake

Tell me about Virgin Media’s radio news output, and its online news output? It’s non-existent. That’s why comparing RTE’s news output and Virgins is night and day. Virgin puts all its focus on TV, RTE doesn’t.

Much like their ad revenue from Radio, their radio news output does not exist. As they hold no radio license, for that I refer you to Bauer.

I will agree both VMTV/TV3 and TG4 have been quite bad with there online news output, but their news shows are available on their players, Bauer news online is line is clearly more substantial. I had hoped that when Virgin Media took over UTV Ireland it would have held on to the online output from that service. I am not really sure why VMTV doesn't have a news website, that never made sense to me.

While Virgin Media has Ireland AM, which isn’t a news programme, RTE radio has Morning Ireland.

And newstalk has Newstalk Breakfast, as I say VMTV does not have a radio license, there are two national radio licenses held by Baure (Today FM and Newstalk, both have radio breakfast shows).

I agree that RTE slowing down over the summer and scaling back some of its output isn’t great. I’m not trying to be a great defender of RTE here. It’s just this narrative of cutting staff and cutting journalists only leads to worse outcomes. Look at what’s happening across in the UK for evidence of that.

It has always scaled back during the summer months, this is not new, and why would I compare the UK to Ireland. That would be like comparing apples and oranges.

There are plenty of areas in RTE where the fat needs to be trimmed, especially in those middle managers.

However, saying the frontline journalists need to be trimmed down isn’t the way. Absolutely the legacy deals for the likes of George Lee need to go, because as far as I’m aware all the other correspondents are on half of his salary and that’s as high as it goes.

I haven't suggested frontline journalists need to be trimmed down or cut.

As I say I am not going to defend VMTV, but my argument was about daytime output and news programming output.

VMTV maintain their service for at least 50 weeks of the year. As I say if RTÉ prime time schedule of other non-news shows was stronger I might agree with their decision not to run a full service on TV.

Yeah Tubridy’s live podcasts have been a massive success - he regularly reaches the low teens on YouTube but Instagram is lagging behind in the single digits. The scariest part of that is I’m not even joking - if you scroll back to the relevant pages you’ll see evidence of same.

Even the recorded for later broadcast editions hover between a few hundred and a few thousand views after months online and years in some cases.

My neighbour’s 10 year old child gets more views on his gaming channel, and he doesn’t have a production team behind him, or a presence on Instagram or a constant flow of press releases talking about his ventures to boost his profile.

As for your comments that RTÉ’s digital offering is a scandal I’d agree. What you seem to fail to see is the waste and largesse that was widespread throughout the organisation is what led to this digital service not being fit for purpose - and that is exemplified by the outrageous fees paid to The Toyman - and that’s before we even discuss the dodgy deals.

There was never enough money to pay world class talent level fees to mediocre talent and staff AND have an up to date digital offering. Forbes et all backed the wrong horse.

Indeed lots of defenders of the man!

@EmmetSpiceland @Cyclingtourist absolutely. I look forward to your views, looking forward to the 2025 annual report for both RTÉ and its IPU/commissioning unit.

I am sure the changes that RTÉ have planned will soon come to fruition.